Fri 14 Feb 2025 - 8:00PM
DREAM COMES TRUE FOR ETHAN
Nottingham Panthers were able to make a dream come true for young Ethan as part of Lidl's Christmas wish campaign.
The 15-year-old has only been playing hockey for around 18 months, but is already part of the Nottingham Lions junior programme.
The visit came about after his mum, Zoe, made it her wish when Lidl's Christmas Freeway truck visited Nottingham last November.
Ethan was greeted by the players this morning with a fist-bump as they stepped onto the ice for practice.
After watching the session, he joined the team on the ice for a penalty shootout. Ethan scored twice, once on Jason Grande and the other on Luca Sheldon.
His once-in-a-lifetime experience saw the squad gather for a photo at centre-ice and he also had a trip to the Panthers locker room.
"It was just brilliant," said Ethan. "I was asking questions and the guys were giving me advice on slapshots and wrist-shots. They were more than happy to help.
"Danny (Stewart) gave me some good advice about scoring on goalies which I can take back with me to the Lions.
"It was a a once-in-a-lifetime experience and one I will always remember."
Ethan's visit to training was covered by the Nottingham Post and you can read a great article by Lynette Pinchess by clicking here.
Zoe, Ethan's mum, said: "He's had a hard few years and we finally found a sport he could play because he lost his vision in one of his eyes. His dad passed away sadly in 2021.
"Since then everything I do is for Ethan and all my wishes are for him. I wanted something that was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. For them to contact me and say it was granted was like 'wow'.
"After so much stuff that he's been through it's something to come good, that's why I did it. He needs a bit of happiness in his life. Despite everything he's gone through he keeps smiling."
Ethan lost the vision in his right eye and has to attend Great Ormond Street Hospital in London every 12 weeks to have an optical nerve injection in the back of his head to reduce the pain.
His inspiration for the sport come from our former player David-Alexandre Beauregard who could only see out of one eye.
The Panthers were honoured to have Ethan on the ice today and it's was great to see him have so much fun. It was a pleasure for us all to meet Ethan and his mum Zoe and we are so happy we could make his dream come true.